Many things have been written about the excesses of Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses and Mötley Crüe, endlessly catalogued and rehashed, blah blah blah. One person who gets massively overlooked is Chip Z’Nuff who has led Enuff Z’Nuff to hell and back and now, Chip Z’Nuff is once again stepping out of the Enuff Z’Nuff limelight and into his own spotlight with his latest solo album ‘Perfectly Imperfect’.
Last year, Enuff Z’Nuff released their tribute to The Beatles with ‘Enuff Z’Nuff’s Hardrock Nite’ and with this second Chip Z’Nuff offering, The Beatles influence continues to shine through as Chip Z’Nuff takes us on another Magical Mystery Tour with ‘Perfectly Imperfect’. This is an album where The Beatles are all over it, double tracked melodies and experimental psychedelia are the order of the day here as tracks such as ‘Heaven in a Bottle’, ‘I Still Hail You’ and ‘Heroin’ have all the goodness of the Fab Four circa ’66-’70. Naturally, Chip Z’Nuff can’t hide those big, hook-laden chorus’ away and with just enough guitar driving forward, ‘Perfectly Imperfect’ is given the power-pop/hard rock vibe that fans of Cheap Trick cannot get enough of; even more so as ‘Doctor (I’m Going Down Can You Save Me?)’ among others features the guest drums of Daxx Nielson, current drummer of Cheap Trick and son of a certain Rick Nielson.
This solo album may not push the boundaries of what Chip Z’Nuff knows, but it does continue to show that when it comes to crafting hard rock with enough infectious power pop to have the listener humming for days upon days, then ‘Perfectly Imperfect’ is well… perfectly imperfect.
